A GRATEFUL woman is fundraising to thank surgeons who saved her life after removing a brain tumour.

Lisa Ennew, of Colchester, underwent eight hours of surgery on her 46th birthday to remove the tumour which was bigger than a golf ball.

Doctors believe she had had the tumour for more than 20 years but she only had the slightest of symptoms for two years.

The only sign there was anything wrong was a numbness in her foot.

And she nearly did not go to get it checked out because she did not want to take time off work.

Lisa, who is a retail manager, said: “For the last two years, every now and again, my foot went a bit numb.

“I went to the doctors and they sent me to physio for sciatica.

“But I got in the bath one day in July and my leg just started moving on its own for seconds.

“I didn’t like it. I went to the doctors and they sent me for a scan and blood tests.

“I went up to Ipswich Hospital and it was a good job I was on holiday because I didn’t really want to take the time off work.

“I had the scan and the doctor came out and said I had a big mass pushing into my brain.

“I just thought ‘This can’t be. I jog, I’m fit and healthy’. There was just nothing wrong with me.”

Lisa, who lives in Harwich Road, Colchester, was sent home with steroids she thought were to shrink the tumour.

But the next day she was shocked to receive a call from Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridgeshire to book her in for surgery.

Lisa said: “I didn’t believe it was happening.

“They told me I really needed it moving. It was golf ball sized, probably bigger.

“They thought it had probably been slow growing and had been there for 20 or 30 years.

“They told me it would have been hard to remove if they had left it any longer.”

Lisa was scheduled for a four hour operation on her birthday of August 18. However, because the mass was bigger than initially thought, it turned into eight hours of skilful surgery.

Now, four months on, Lisa has recovered enough to go back to work at Coast, in Debenhams, Colchester.

She is grateful to be well again and is now fundraising as a way to say thank you.

  • LISA is taking part in a night ski dressed as a surgeon to thank the doctors who saved her life.

Lisa was suffering from a large meningioma brain tumour. A meningioma is a tumour which forms on membranes covering the brain and spinal cord just inside the skull.

These tumours are often slow-growing and usually cause no symptoms and need no immediate treatment.

However, Lisa’s continued to grow.

She has recovered from surgery and wants to thank hospital staff at Addenbrooke’s by taking part in a night ski in Bulgaria dressed as a surgeon.

Lisa said: “I booked a holiday there two weeks before I found out I had this.

“Now the surgeon says I can fly. There isn’t a lot of awareness for this condition and I thought I would pluck up the courage to do a night ski.

“The staff have been amazing.”

Lisa wants to raise £2,000 with the night ski on March 2 and has already received more than £500 in donations.

To sponsor Lisa, go to justgiving.com/crowdfunding/supportinglisa.